I dream of Jeannie
by Ella Lane
Summary: What happens when an astronaut finds a bottle on a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean?
1. Prologue

Author's note:

This story starts before the Pilot. It will contain spoilers for all five seasons, and some episodes might be slightly different from the original series. For the sake of this story, Jeannie is a human girl turned into a genie, as she was for the first season and second season of the show. So there will be no genie relatives, unless I find a way to explain them in the story.

Prologue

September the 17th 1965 – 08:00 pm – 1020 Palm Drive – Cocoa Beach

He was going to bed particularly early that night. The next day, he was going in orbit and he could not wait for it. It was a routine mission, nothing like going to the moon or anything, but it was still like doing it for the first time all over again. He simply loved being an astronaut, and he would not give this up for anything in the world.

He lied down on his bed with a smile on his lips and sighed with deep satisfaction. Everything in his life was going according to his plans. He had a prospecting career in the U.S.A. Air force, and after years of hard work and study, he succeeded in his dream of becoming an astronaut. He had enjoyed, for a while, the happy life of a bachelor astronaut, with dozens of girls and almost a new date every single night. He met thousands of different girls willing to give him their numbers, which he used to write down on his kitchen wall, and he had all the fun that any average American man would love to have. Unfortunately, one could not lead this kind of life forever. It comes a time when a man must settle down, and he believed this time had come for him.

The truth was that the famous Captain Anthony Nelson was getting tired of having a new face every night. He felt it was time for him to settle down, so being the kind of man he was, he started to look around to find the perfect girl. She would have to be beautiful, someone that could photograph well beside him. She would also have to be used to the kind of life of a military. In order to achieve this, he started to look after the perfect wife among the officer's daughters and he found Melissa, General's Stone daughter. General Stone was his superior at NASA, and it would do wonders for his career to be married to her. They dated for some time, and he finally proposed and got his 'yes'. They were going to be married this Sunday.

Tony smiled remembering how his friend Roger tried to convince him not to marry Melissa. Roger simply could not understand that he was nothing like him. He did not believe in deep passions controlling his life and choices. The Romantic Love, in his scientific opinion, was a myth, belonging to fairy tales, just like fairies, witches, warlocks, and genies. Real Love was rooted in respect, friendship, and common goals. Tony understood passion and lust, because he had experimented both of them, and he knew them to be chemical reactions, explained by science, but the notion of an overwhelming feeling, that would make someone essential to his very living was something beyond his ability to understand. Maybe it could happen to someone else, but he was sure that it would never happen to him, and he felt grateful for that. He had absolutely no desire to have his life turned upside down by a feeling that he would not be able to control.

Somewhere, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean

For two thousands years she had lived inside that bottle, sailing on the Ocean. Years, decades, centuries had passed, and not even one poor fisher had been able to catch her. There were moments when she got so desperate that she almost regretted rejecting the wicked Blue Djinn. If she had accepted him, she would still have her family, and her friends, and she might even have had kids. Even when she thought that, she knew that she never could have accepted him, and even if she did, her father would never have allowed her to go on with it. They knew the Blue Djinn was a monster, and they loved her too much to let this marriage happen. No one expected him to turn her into a genie, though.

Until this day, she never really understood what have happened. He turned her into a genie, and imprisoned her inside this bottle, so that she would be his slave, and she would have to do whatever he wanted her to do. If he could not marry her, he would own her. However, something went wrong, and somehow her bottle ended on a wood boat, and after the ship sunk, on the sea. Now, after wandering for thousands of years, it seemed that her bottle finally landed somewhere, not very far from the sea. She could hear the sounds of the waves on the sand nearby, and the distant sound of the owls in the night. She did not remember the last time she had heard the sound of any animal.

It was such a good feeling to be on solid land again. She could not help but hope that something good would come after all. Maybe someone would come and finally release her, after all this years of imprisonment. She was not really asking for much. She just wanted someone she could serve, and that could be kind enough to, at least let her be outside of her bottle from time to time. She just wanted to get out, and finally see the sun she had not seen for so long. She would give anything, just to have a glimpse of the Moon and the stars, and all the others beautiful things she used to take for granted before.

She sometimes, in the solitude of her bottle, thought about her family and friends. She knew they must have died a long time ago, but time seemed so different, now, than what it was before. Before, when she had a name, and a family, and friends, and things to do, and a future to look forward, time seemed so short, but now, it seemed eternal. With the powers she had, she could go back and forward, do amazing things, even raise the dead, or go back into the past, and hold her family once more. If she ever got released from her bottle, there is. Even if she did, would her master or mistress allow her to see her parents again? Would he or she be kind and patient with her? Would he or she understand that she wasn't born a genie, and that there was so many things she didn't know about it?

She sighed. She had lost so much that day. She lost hope, she lost love, and she even lost her own name. She would have to wait until the day her first master named her, and whatever he called her, would be her new name. If she were born a genie, she would have been able to retrieve her name, but because she was human, she would remain nameless, and waiting, and waiting, and waiting…


	2. 1: The Lady in the Bottle: part 1

Author's note:

I would like to thank you, Kentauros, for being so kind and reviewing my story. I apologize for any misspelling or grammatical errors. I am not a native English speaker, and though I use spell check, it is entirely possible that I miss anything.

About this chapter: this is the first part of the Lady in the bottle. I hope you will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Please, let me know if you like it, or not.

Chapter 1: The Lady in the bottle – part 1

September the 18th 1965, Cape Kennedy, 2:45 am

Everything was ready to the launch. Tony Nelson was sitting on a brown leather chair, while his colleagues were helping him to get dressed in his silver astronaut suit. He was sporting a cool and collected exterior, while inside he was jumping with excitement. It was just the regular preparations before the blast off. Dr. Bellows had already proclaimed him physically fit to the mission, and he would just have to check some final points and there he would go.

"Good morning, gentlemen!"

Tony looked up in time to see General Stone entering the room. "Good morning, sir."

"How do you feel, Tony?"

"Kind of eager, sir" He answered with a smile, while standing up.

"He is a lucky devil!" exclaimed Lt. Pete Conway. "You wouldn't want to sit this one out?"

He smiled. "No, thank you. This is _my_ baby." He knew exactly what Pete was feeling right now. Pete would be the one assigned to go in his place, if he found himself in no conditions to flight. 'Well, not today buddy boy.' Tony thought with delight.

"Everything checks out, General." Dr. Bellows said calmly.

"Good!" Exclaimed the General, then he smiled at Tony. "Melissa asked me to give you her love. She wanted to come and see you off herself, but I don't break regulations not even for my own daughter."

"Tony, this is your week." said Roger, while helping him with his suit. "Going in orbit today, and marrying Melissa on Sunday…"

Tony smiled happy. Yes, this was definitely his week. He had a distinct feeling that nothing could go wrong in his life now. Everything was just perfect.

"We will throw you a Bachelor Party when you get back." promised Dr. Bellows.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

September the 18th 1965, somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, 6:30 am

The sun was rising, just as it always had for 2.000 years. It had always risen the same way. Another day was beginning. She could hear the birds singing, the murmur of the wind, and the humming of the waves on the sand. She could feel the nice warmth of the sun from inside her bottle. It looked like it was going to be such a nice day, just like so many others nice days before this one. For centuries, whenever she saw the sun rising, she started to hope. This one morning, the Lady trapped in the bottle refused to hope. Despair was starting to get hold of her and she was starting to consider rolling her bottle towards the rocks she could hardly distinguish from inside her prison. If she destroyed the bottle, with herself inside, she would be destroyed as well. Every genie knew that, but she was so tired of hoping and waiting, and hoping and waiting…

That was the moment she saw it. Something in the sky, approaching quickly the water, and a sound like she never heard in her entire life. The whole island was shaking, and she wondered if, after all, it would not be necessary to roll her bottle to the rocks. She remembered ancient legends, from her time, about a rain of fire, and destruction falling from the skies. Maybe the gods had decided to destroy the world, and she had just seen the rising of the last day. She sighed. It would not make any difference, but she would prefer much more to witness her last moments from outside her bottle. In a weird way, she almost felt grateful for the idea of destruction. Her torments would be over, and she would meet better fate on the otherworld realm.

……………………………………………………………………………………………..

Stardust 1 was falling down quickly. Captain Nelson had absolutely no idea where he was falling, but there was water, and if he landed on water, he knew he could buy himself some more moments alive. He found ironic that just some hours ago his friends were congratulating him for going in this mission. Little did they know that he would be going in what could be his last mission. He pushed away his depressive thoughts, while he landed the ship on the water. He was trained to maintain control, and he was not going to let himself get desperate.

He opened the capsule, and looked around. He breathed deeply. He had no idea where he was, but he was alive. It was enough for now. He could see the island, just a few meters in front of him. He went inside his dinghy, and started paddling towards the island.

The sight that awaited him was not very promising. It was not a big island, and just half an hour was enough to explore it. He found some coconut palms, which could provide him of water, but besides that, no food or anything that could be used as food. He was also unable to find any signs of civilization. As far as he could see, this looked like a place with no contact with the civilization. He had no idea how far off course he went, and he had a feeling his colleagues at the base would have no idea either. He could stay in this island for days, or years or even decades…

He shook his head. He would NOT give up. He knew the standards procedures. There would be a search party looking for him, and he must be prepared. He started walking around the island, and picking up everything that he could use to write a sign big enough that it could be see by a helicopter or by a plane.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

The moment he caught her bottle, she felt it. She could feel from inside her bottle the heat from his hand. It comforted her some how, giving her some reassurance that there was hope after all. The world had not ended, as the ancients predicted, in a rain of fire, but the rain brought with a man with it. She could not see his face clearly, from inside her bottle, but she could see the hand that was holding her bottle.

He examined the bottle. He never saw anything quite like it. It was certainly antique, and in another circumstances, he would have examined that purple bottle closely, eager to find out where it came from. However, right now, his mind was too preoccupied with getting out of there to really care about it. So, he took the bottle and placed it on the first "S" of his S.O.S sign.

She felt the loss of his hands immediately. She waited for a while, to see if he would notice her bottle again. She couldn't quite understand why a man, holding a genie bottle, would not be curious enough to open it. However, Tony was too busy with his sign to even elaborate what that bottle could mean. Even if he was able to recognize a genie bottle, which he wasn't, he would never admit the existence of genies.

Finally, she noticed the man wasn't paying attention to her bottle any more. He seemed busy with something she couldn't understand, but she was not going to let her first opportunity of being freed from her bottle to pass by. She waited until she could see the man's shadow next to her, and rolled her bottle. That caught his attention.

Tony, intrigued, looked at the bottle, and shook his head. He walked towards it, and put it back in its place. To his surprise, the bottle rolled again. He, once again, picked it up and looked around, to see if he could find any explanation for what had happened. Finding none, he examined the bottle closely. Maybe there was something inside, a small animal or some sort of device that would explain what happened.

He pulled off the cork, and nothing came out. He examined it again. It looked like it was very old, and dirty. He rubbed it, in order to see if there was anything scripted on its surface, and had the surprise of his life. All of a sudden, a pink smoke started coming from inside the bottle. Startled, he let it go from his hands, and it dropped on the sand, while the pink smoke took the form of a young blond girl wearing a harem costume.

The vision kneeled before him, with her head down, while uttering some words he was not able to understand. "Bandie gosh parmoneh toh ansavah" He rubbed his eyes. He was hallucinating, that was for sure. That was when she raised her head, and their eyes met. She was just the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and that made him even more sure that he was hallucinating. He simply couldn't believe that such beauty existed.

She stood up, in front of him, after repeating the ancient words "Your wish is my command, master". Then their eyes met, and she found that her master was the most beautiful man she had ever seen. His eyes were bluer than the clear sky, and there were so alive, even now when he contemplated her with such incredulity written on his handsome face. "Oh", she said, while walking slowly towards him, her eyes never leaving his beautiful face, her heart exploding with gratitude for this man that had released her from her prison. There was something magnetic pulling her towards him, and before she knew it, her arms were around him, and her lips were touching him with all the tenderness she felt inside her heart.

Tony couldn't help but kiss her back. She was just so beautiful, and there was something about her kiss, that he had never felt before. He had kissed many women before, some of them with greater experience than this girl that was kissing him right now, but not one of them had such love and devotion in his kiss. It was alluring, hypnotic, and extremely dangerous for him.

She pulled away, her arms still around his neck, while he looked at her, completely astonished. "I must have gone further in orbit than I thought!" he exclaimed.

She smiled at him, once again and caressed his face tenderly. He has such a nice voice… It warmed her heart just to hear him speaking, even though she had no idea of what he was talking.

He closed his eyes for a moment, just reveling in the feeling of her hand on his face. It felt so… deliciously dangerous. He opened his eyes in shock and took hold of both her hands, guiding her to a nearby rock. She sat there, and just stared at him as he walked towards her bottle, and picked it up again. He examined it closely now. Someone trapped in a bottle, getting out in a puff of smoke. He knew exactly what that meant: Aladdin and the magic lamp. She was a genie.

He looked at her completely bewildered. "Well, I've read about genies, but I never thought they really…" He stopped himself and laughed. "It is like something out of the Arabian Nights!"

"Sheklah messeh seymoye dalire halifax" She replied giggling a little bit, and extending her hand to touch him slightly. She felt like a little girl, in front of him. Technically, she was 2019 years old, but she felt like 14 again, looking at such a handsome man.

"You know," he said, sitting beside her, "I suppose if I hadn't come along you'd still be in this." He threw her bottle a little, and then realization dawned in him. "Wait a minute. I rescued you. I rescued you!" He repeated excited. "That means I've got a free wish or something. Genies do that, don't they? Of course, they do!" He stood up, his face beaming with enthusiasm, and an excitement he had not felt for a long time.

"Jeannie, I tell you what I wish. I wish there was a beautiful P2V right up in the sky over my head, right now!"

She smiled at him, completely oblivious of his meaning. The only thing she could understand was that her new master had named her "Jeannie". Now, she had a name, and she liked that name a lot. "Doren Kenton on sarvarih", she said tenderly and smiling.

Her new master sighed impatiently. "I had to get a genie who does not understand English." He walked away a little frustrated. It was not her fault, of course, but he got so excited with the idea of leaving the island that he could not help from blaming Fate, who gave him a genie, but denied him the means of communicating with her. "Airplane" He said coming back to her. "Airplane" he tried again to talk to her. "You see… It is up in the sky" He pointed towards the sky, and then tried to mimic an airplane, just like little boys used to do, with his arms extended, and walking in circles whistling.

"Seymor!" She exclaimed excited, thinking she finally understood her Master. He wanted an eagle! She did not understand _why_ he would want an eagle, but she was extremely happy to give him whatever he desired. So, she immediately blinked her master a beautiful, majestic eagle.

Tony looked at the eagle on his right arm, with a mixture of panic and disappointment. "No, no, no, no. Je..Jeannie, get it away!" He managed to stammer.

She seemed to understand what he meant, because he saw her blinking, and the eagle disappeared from his arm. "Seymor" She repeated looking at him, excited.

"Yes" He said, rubbing his right arm. "That was a Seymor, all right!" He sat beside her again.

She looked at him, deeply worried because she understood that she had not pleased him. She wanted so much to please him, so she tried to ask him what she did wrong, and how she could please him. Unfortunately, in the same way she could not understand the strange words he spoke, he also could not understand her Ancient Persian.

"Jeannie, forget about the airplane." He tried again. "I wish for a ship." He stood up again. "A boat…umm…on the water…umm…like this." He tried to mimic the movement of a ship, waving his two hands together. She seemed to get him, but then again, she also seemed to have understood him before, he thought a little frustrated.

"Ghesti" She said enthusiastically.

"Yes, yes." He agreed. "Ghesti."

She folded her arms and blinked again. He looked at the water in awe. Something that resembled a Viking boat was sailing the waters, right in front of him. He looked at her extremely surprised. He assumed she was just as young as she appeared to him, but if this is the kind of ship she knew, then… "You are older than you look." He said slowly.

She looked at him, extremely sad. She shook her head in disappointment. "Isn't this what you wished, Master?" She asked in Persian.

He did not exactly understand the words she said, but he saw reflected in her face the same frustration he was feeling, and he knew, without words what she meant. "No, it is not right, Jeannie," He gestured towards the boat. "Take it away."

She folded her arms, blinked again and the boat disappeared. He looked at her, with a smile on his face, wondering how could they not understand each other, and at the same time understand so completely what the other was feeling. "Oh, Jeannie, I wish you could speak English." He said and started pacing near her, thinking about what he could do.

She sighed, completely frustrated by now. "Ioh shoh rei parian! Somehow I must find a way to please thee, Master!" She said resting her head on her hand.

"Forget it!" He said frustrated. "You will never be able to please me as long as you don't understand…" He stopped suddenly, realization dawning in him. "You spoke English!" He cried excitedly. "That was all I had to do. Just to say I wish!"

She jumped in his arms, completely happy to have finally pleased her Master. "Thou may ask anything of thy slave, Master." She said while throwing her arms around his neck.

He laughed nervously, a thousands things passing on his mind in a flash of how many things he could ask of her that he absolutely should not ask of her. "That is very kind of you." He replied, trying to get her hands off his neck. "I actually don't need anything at the moment." 'You are an engaged man.' A voice kept repeating inside his mind. 'It doesn't matter that she is the most beautiful woman you had ever set your eyes on. You just can't!' Then, almost immediately, his mind started working properly. "Yes, I do!" He exclaimed, and looked at her, while holding both her hands between his. "I need a helicopter."

She looked at him, and repeated. "A helicopter?"

"Yes. It is like an Airplane. It is big, and it is noisy, and it has blades on top." He tried to explain. "shshshshs. Makes that kind of noise."

She had no idea of what that was, but she folded her arms and blinked, hoping for the best.

Tony looked at the sky and nodded. "Yeah, that is a helicopter." She remained looking up at the sky, trying to understand what that was.

"That's a helicopter!" He exclaimed, excited now, running around the beach, and jumping with enthusiasm.

"Jeannie, you are marvelous." He said, coming back near her. "I don't know how to thank you."

She, once again, threw her arms around his neck. "I will teach thee, Master." She said mischievously. She so wanted to kiss him again, and do whatever she could for that man in front of her that had captured her heart so quickly.

"Wait a moment, Jeannie." He said nervously, while trying to take her hands off his neck… Again… "But I have got to get my gear." He started running towards his equipment, her hand safely held in his.

"Wait until I get you back in the base!" He exclaimed excitedly.

"Oh, I will travel anywhere with thee, Master." She replied lovingly.

He held both her hands inside his, and looked into her beautiful eyes. "Sure, sure.!" He started packing his things. "Wait until General Stone sees you!" He stopped, suddenly realizing what he was saying. General Stone. His soon to be father in law. What would he think when he found out that he had been alone, in a deserted island, with a beautiful woman wearing nothing but a harem outfit? What would he think when he knew that this woman kept offering to do anything for him, and kept hugging him whenever she wanted? How would that look? No one would believe that he did not take advantage of the situation. He knew he had been tempted to, especially when she had kissed him with such devotion, and caressed his face with such tenderness…

He looked at her, sadness written on his face. "Jeannie, I will never be able to explain you." He gazed inside her eyes for a moment, and thought how he wanted her to be happy, and he never wanted her to be a slave again. "I am setting you free." He said tenderly.

She smiled. "Thou hast set me free, and now I belong to thee." She said simply.

"No, no, no. You don't understand." He tried to express his feelings. "I rescued you, you rescued me. We are even." He looked at her sadly. "I am going home, and you go… wherever you go." He back off from her a little, while she looked at him. "Good bye, Jeannie. Good bye." With these words, he turned his back to her, and ran towards the helicopter.

She waited until he was out of her sight, and smoked herself into her bottle. Inside there, she moved her bottle to his bag. She made a decision that moment: she realized that she was in love with him, and she simply would not be left behind. She needed to be with him, and to surround him with her love, even if he didn't love her back. With all the faith of a heart that had never loved before, she believed that just because she loved him he would love her in return. He just needed some time to see it.

He ran towards the men in the helicopter. He decided, while he was running towards them that he had imagined the whole thing. Nothing happened, the real world came to rescue him, and he was sure that he would find an explanation with the men. Their explanation was very reasonable. A storm threw them off course, and they just happened to find him there. He looked around, while gathering his things, just to be sure she wasn't really there. A part of him wanted her to be real. He knew that such a perfect woman _had_ to be a figment of his own imagination, but he wanted her so much to be real. He wished she was part of his life, even though he knew that real or not, there was no room in his life for her.

Back in Cape Kennedy, he had to stay 2 days at the hospital, no visitors allowed, while Dr. Bellows would perform all kind of exams to see if he was ok. That night, in that hospital bed, he dreamt of her. In his dream, he was back on that beach, and he picked her bottle once more, opening it with his heart full of enthusiasm. Her pink smoke came out, and she, once again hugged him, and kissed him deeply. He responded to her kiss, with no guilt or regret.

After the deep kiss, she looked into his eyes, and repeated lovingly. "Thou may ask anything of thy slave, Master." Only this time, he didn't take her arms off his neck. He let them stay there, and he kissed her with a passion that he never knew he had before this moment.

"Jeannie, all I need is you." He said huskily. "Please, don't leave me. Please never let me go." He said pointing each word with passionate kisses. "Jeannie…"

He stayed the whole night, whispering her name between dreams. "Jeannie, Jeannie…"


End file.
